June 2009 Service Change: Express Routes

We’ve begun shopping around Capital Metro’s June 2009 service change proposal. One of the items in the proposal is changes to and the possible elimination of some express route trips in the Northwest corridor, on routes 984, 986 and 987.

After the Capital MetroRail Red Line begins full service, Capital Metro will evaluate ridership on both the Red Line and routes 984, 986 and 987 for some weeks to determine if any trips on these express routes could be trimmed. In particular, routes 984 and 986 parallel the Red Line. Those trips with similar departures as the Red Line could potentially be eliminated or consolidated with 987. However, we really won’t know until after the Red Line has been in full operation a little while and we see where the ridership trends are.

Going multi-modal is a big deal, and while our planners have a lot of tools and expertise at their disposal to predict ridership patterns and need for service, it’s not a perfect science. It made pragmatic sense to go ahead and propose potential changes to 984, 986, and 987 now, so that we have the ability to make any needed changes after the Red Line begins to best allocate our resources and coordinate bus and rail services.

As with every service change (three times per year), it’s a public process, and we invite your participation. Capital Metro staff is hosting two community meetings this week, and the Capital Metro Board welcomes your input at a public hearing.

Don: funny you should ask… I am drafting up a post about the ‘Dillos. We’re proposing to eliminate weekend service on the ‘Dillos due to low ridership. I remember you had asked about ‘Dillo ridership a couple of months ago, and I had some information for you but it was without any context and I ran out of time to dig for it.

MIEK: The commitment we made was not to mess with express buses until after rail was up and running.